6/4/2012

Hi family!

Thank you for all the emails! And thanks to Mom and Lynda for the packages! They were very much appreciated :) My friends were also really good about sending me dearelder mail, which I greatly appreciated!

This week went by quite fast, and thankfully was much less exhausting than the first two days. My Cantonese is improving quite a bit-- I can give a prayer, bear my testimony, and teach about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration now (very simply, of course.) We continued to teach our "investigator" this week in Cantonese (we had figured out she was  a member), and after a lesson that didn't go very well on Wednesday, Sister Lin and I decided that we were going to work harder on having the Spirit. So on Thursday we taught her about Moroni's Promise and asked whether she'd commit to baptism, and she said she would! So that was exciting for us. It was really cool-- during that lesson I could feel the Spirit prompting me to testify at certain points, and at one point it was to say a few words that I had only briefly looked at earlier in the day and can't remember the word for now, but it came to me so fluidly and quickly-- It was so cool. The gift of tongues is definitely kicking in! It made me feel a bit more confident about being able to teach people once I get to Hong Kong since the Spirit will help me.

So the last time we taught our investigator was Thursday. Then Friday morning when we were coming back from breakfast, we saw her in our classroom from the window, and we were all like "What is she doing here??" Then we walk in and see that she has a white teacher name badge on. Turns out she's going to be one of our teachers for the rest of the time we're here! haha. We were all in shock for a bit. But she's good--I like her so far. Her name is Sister Tai (or Dai Jimuih) and is from Hong Kong, so will be quite helpful for the language. Our other teacher Gu Hingdai (Brother Kruman) apparently was only our sub for the first 2 weeks, so we said bye to him on Saturday, which we were all sad about because we love him and can basically attribute all of our language knowledge to him. Hopefully we'll like our real teacher that's supposedly coming back soon. I hear he's really good.

Sister Lin is from somewhere in Southeast China, and apparently is a 2-hour plane ride from Hong Kong. She's really nice and her English is pretty good since she's been living in Australia for 8 years. It's cool because our strengths are so complementary-- the language comes a lot more naturally to her than to me, but she feels like she doesn't know the doctrines and the lessons that we're supposed to teach very well, whereas I feel quite comfortable in that regard, so we're trying to help each other out. Also, could I ask a favor? Sister Lin is the only one in our district who hasn't been getting mail really since her only family is her mom in China and the friends she has are in Australia. Would some of you be willing to send her something? Even a note of encouragement would be good.

As Coordinating Sister so far I've basically just welcomed a new district with the Zone Leaders and gave them part of an orientation presentation and helped with a tour. I'll be welcoming 4 new sisters this week, because the 4 in my room who are going to Temple Square leave Wednesday morning, which is sad. They've been pretty great.

Also, I met Dad's cousin Debbie (Alma's daughter) today at the MTC, because she works in the alterations department! It was cool! Small word. Dad, she says she never sees you, so I told her I'd tell you to stop by next time you're in town. :)

I hadn't heard the Daniel story, since he hasn't written me at all yet. Way to go Daniel! [Daniel gave a Book of Mormon to two friends at school last week.] I feel like it's been hit home to me over and over again this week how important the Book of Mormon is for a testimony, so good work Daniel! And Palmyra will be great! It's been quite spiritually strengthening here in really fundamental things like the Book of Mormon and the Restoration and the Atonement. I watched the Joseph Smith movie two days in a row (once while I was working out in the fitness center and the 2nd time Sunday night), and it was just as good the second time! Yay!

The food at the cafeteria's kind of gross, although surprisingly they make cooked carrots really well. I'm proud to report I haven't gained any weight though! I may have even lost weight since I'm excercising for 50 minutes every day during gym time! I like to use the elliptical, stationary bike, run a couple of laps, and play volleyball and four-square for exercise time. Gym time is the best!

Also, I got the hairdryer from Aunt Valerie! Can someone send her an email and tell her I'm very grateful to her for it? I'll tell Uncle Rico when I see him, even though he won't know what I'm talking about since he's been in Japan.

Love you all!

Hahng Jimuih, also known as Sister Heaton (Hahng is pronounced "Hung" in a low tone!)